Astronomers Study Rare ‘Polar-Ring’ Galaxy

The Gemini Observatory has released an image of a clash between two galaxies millions of light years from Earth.

The object named NGC 660 is a “polar-ring” galaxy, named for their ring of stars, dust and gas which in this case extends 40,000 light years across space.

A light-year is a measure of distance describing how far light travels in one year, or about 6 trillion miles.

The image was taken using the spectrograph at the Gemini North Telescope atop the Big Island’s Mauna Kea.

Gemini spokesman Peter Michaud said only a handful of polar-ring galaxies have been discovered, so astronomers are still learning about their origins.

Such galaxies represent the aftermath of a collision of two galaxies, with the ring formed from the remains of one galaxy’s core. The ring or halo contains active star-forming regions, creating blue and red supergiant stars.

The remaining host galaxy at the center of the galaxy contains what is thought to be in a dense cloud of dust and gas giving birth to a super cluster of huge, blue stars, many containing more than 100 times the mass of our Sun.

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Astronomers believe that massive amounts of gas from one of the galaxies triggered the creation of those short-lived stars which explode into supernovae. The resulting energy creates a domino effect, generating new stars in what is known as a starburst galaxy, systems which are among the most dense and intense star-forming environments known.

NGC 660 is located about 40 million light-years from Earth, in the direction of the Pisces constellation.